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Seeing With Your Ears by Gary Ellis

I recently pulled up to a busy stoplight on Locust Street. While waiting for the light to give me permission to proceed, I glanced to my left.

I saw a blind man waiting to cross the street…and he did at just the right moment. Without doing much thinking about it, my inner voice wondered, “How does he do that?”

As I understand it (not being blind, myself) the biggest reason is that the Blind see with their ears. That would seem obviously true, but the fascinating part for me was that there was a constant stream of cars passing the blind man as he was waiting to continue his journey…and he “made his move” at just the right moment.

Now, the answer is a little deeper than “He hears with his ears.” He has to also know what he’s listening for…in very subtle increments. In fact, so subtle that the sounds register – with training and practice – in a kind of intuitive way.

This is overly simplistic. There’s a lot more to the answer on how the Blind navigate themselves. However, in a nutshell, they “order their steps” in a relationship to the world around them that is much different than sighted people.

Shifting gears to make today’s point:

We all might journey with better judgment if we developed the art of “seeing with our ears.”

There is a voice within each of us. That voice is whispering instructions and encouragement all the time. It speaks of greater realities…higher truth. Too often, we see mostly with our outer eyes. The visually viewed world is our highest reality. “What you see is what you get” is our mantra of truth.

Some metaphysical disciplines would say that the realities of the physical world are not realities at all, but instead are illusions. That’s not what I’m getting ready to say.

Things we see with our eyes are actual, real, authentic in their own right. But, there is a higher reality. There is a realm that is unseen to the natural eye that is the dominant reality.

You can’t see love. You can’t see hate. You can’t see prejudice. You can’t see ignorance. And using one of Jesus’ statements to a rich man, “You can’t see the wind…” However, you can see the affects of these realities.

In the same way, we can’t see the promises of God. Oh, yes, we can see the words written on pages, plaques, and note cards. But, are we training ourselves – like the blind man of our illustration – to hear the words on the inside…to register the subtlety of the sounds in our hearts.

Today, you may be facing the reality that you haven’t got enough to “make ends meet.” That is a visual natural world reality. But, the Higher Law Guide Book (the Bible) tells a different story. It instructs us that the Highest Ruler operates with the Highest Rule of all…the Law of Life in Christ Jesus.

Here’s one of those higher realities found in Ephesians 3, “He is able to do exceeding, abundantly, beyond anything you could ask or think according to the power that is at work within you.”

How do we put that into practice? <practice…not “tried” once or twice>

A significant part of the solution is to discipline ourselves to – as the blind man – “see with our ears.”

Do you have any experiences to share with us? How has and is that working out for you?

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